Leviticus 19:15

Justice, Love, and Propriety

19:15 “‘You 1  must not deal unjustly in judgment: 2  you must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. 3  You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. 4 

Leviticus 19:35-37

19:35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume. 5  19:36 You must have honest balances, 6  honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. 7  I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt. 19:37 You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations. 8  I am the Lord.’”

1 tc Smr has the singular rather than the plural “you” of the MT, which brings this verb form into line with the ones surrounding it.

2 tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”

3 tn Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”

4 tn Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”

5 tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”

6 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.

7 sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 quart).

8 tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31).